(Quebec) Tax exemption for real estate developers, public mortgage loan program for new buyers, resurrection of the AccèsLogis program and holding of general statements on housing: the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) is proposing several measures to counter the crisis of the dwelling.
Posted at 1:49 a.m.
Updated at 7:00 a.m.
“The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) has been in power for six years and there is still no plan. This is why today, I am proposing several measures that can be put in place quickly,” says Liberal MP Virginie Dufour.
With its strategy, it wishes to achieve four objectives: stimulate the construction of private housing, increase the share of “non-market” housing to protect the most vulnerable tenants, facilitate access to property and help cities move forward with projects. residential.
As for access to property, the spokesperson for the official opposition on housing is worried: the property rate in Quebec is declining, “a first in more than 50 years”.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Virginie Dufour, spokesperson for the official opposition on housing
When you are an owner, you have an asset, and the more assets you have, the richer you are. It has always been the aspiration of Quebecers to become owners. When we pay rent, someone else is paying for their assets, and we have nothing in the end.
Virginie Dufour, member of the Liberal Party of Quebec and spokesperson for housing
She therefore wants the Société de l’habitation du Québec (SHQ) to change its vocation and become a “financial investor”, to be able to lend the difference between a 5% down payment and a 20% down payment to first-time buyers. . This approach would allow these people to avoid paying insurance to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. The SHQ could recover its money, with interest, when the house is sold, suggested Mr.me From the oven.
Tax candy
To stimulate housing, the PLQ essentially offers a series of tax candies. First, it would return to 50% the capital gains exemption rate that the Legault government increased to follow Ottawa’s decision. This is a shortfall of 600 million for the Public Treasury, recognizes Mme Dufour, but it is necessary to stimulate the real estate sector. “The government will never be able to put in the amount of money that would have to be put in alone,” she says.
She also wants to exempt the construction of rental housing from the QST, as Ontario does, and “establish a tax rule allowing Quebec real estate investors to defer payment of capital gains tax when they reinvest their profits in the construction of new housing.
The PLQ also wants to support cities, which are sometimes criticized for not issuing construction permits quickly enough, for example. Mme Dufour, a former municipal councilor in Laval, emphasizes that infrastructure often limits the power of cities to “open” sectors. “Increasing the capacity of a wastewater treatment plant, running pipes in the ground, it costs very, very expensive,” she illustrates.
She wants a pilot project that would allow private investors, in Quebec and Ottawa, to pay for the infrastructure of new neighborhoods. In exchange, these investors could get their hands on a portion of the property taxes of this new neighborhood for a certain period.
AccèsLogis
The PLQ also proposes increasing the quantity of non-market housing, which is not privately owned, from 8 to 12%. “It’s necessary to protect tenants,” says Mme From the oven. To achieve this, it proposes to resurrect the AccèsLogis program, abandoned by the CAQ in favor of another program that it considers less effective, at a cost of at least $100 million per year more.
Finally, Mme Dufour wants general statements on housing to be held, so that all of civil society is called upon to “find ideas”, while Quebec finds itself “in the wall”, and the government has “no plan » to get us out of the crisis.
